THE DIOCESE OF SLAVA

THE DIOCESE OF SLAVA

The history of this diocese has its beginnings in the early days of the XIX th century, when it was founded by Ambrose. He was coming from Bosnia at that time, and two centuries after his death, he is sanctified.

In the first days of August,1847, at the Metropolitan Church of White Well (Ukraine nowadays), arrives the delegation from the Monastery of Slava and from other communities residing on the Upper Danube region (Dobroudjea was at that time under the Ottomans). The delegation had among it three candidates for the position of Bishop. One of them was Arkady Dorofeev, monk at that time, later to become Bishop Arkady in 1847.

All his life, he worked and suffered. The Turkish authorities arrested them and put him into prison, but having no real proof against him, he was released. But no sooner has he been raised to Archbishop, that he was arrested by the Russian army and imprisoned in the fortress Suzdal.

Following Arkady I, Arkady II was elected the new bishop in 1854 (Andrei Radionovich Shaposhnikoff by his worldly name). He amazes the world with his vast knowledge and literary talent. Later he was called “bishop of the Nekrasovs”. After the war ( between the Russians and the Turks), Arkady II comes to Dobrodjea and receives also the Diocese of Slava alongside the upper Danube-region communities.

He is followed by father Leonty, the fourth bishop, in 1906. After his death, the seat remains empty up until 1927. All this time, the diocese is run by the bishop Nikodim of Tulcea.

A crucial moment in the history of the diocese is marked by the official recognition of the Turkish Government in 1851, and the official establishment of the diocese at Monastery Uspenia ( village Slava Rusa, Tulcea County).

Then followed bishop Savaty 1940, then bishop Inokenty , and then bishop Vladimir in 1951.

The seventh bishop of Slava is Ioasaf - 1958, followed by the eighth bishop, Ambrose, in 1960.